Russia 090423 Basic Political Developments

Arms Dealer May Not Fill All Orders

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/600/42/376520.htm

23 April 2009 The Moscow Times

State-owned arms exporter Rosoboronexport may not be able to fill all of its international orders this year, Alexander Brindikov, chairman of the company's board of advisers, said Wednesday.

"On the market today, by our estimates, defense firms will suffer from a low level of cooperation, and this may lead to noncompliance for a number of completed contracts," he said, Interfax reported.

Brindikov pointed to weak credit markets as a serious obstacle for the sector, saying lending to defense firms had nearly frozen up. Providing the defense industry with cheap and long-term credit is the most serious issue that the sector faces, he said.

Nevertheless, the company expects to export about $7 billion worth of weapons in 2009, roughly the same level as last year. "We have a serious portfolio of orders. We expect the level of exports of Russian arms to coincide with 2008," Brindikov said.

Last year, Russia exported $8.4 billion worth of arms, of which Rosoboronexport accounted for $6.7 billion.

Major clients, such as India, have complained about late deliveries, and Libya returned 15 MiG fighters last year because of what it called the equipment's low quality.

Sevmash Shipyard said Tuesday that it was increasing the price that it would charge India for the Admiral Gorshkov, a modernized aircraft carrier. In 2004, India signed a $1.6 billion contract for the delivery, but the shipyard now says it wants between $2.5 billion and $4 billion to deliver the upgraded vessel.

Russian arms exports holding steady

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2009/04/22/Russian-arms-exports-holding-steady/UPI-87521240421438/
Published: April 22, 2009 at 1:30 PM
MOSCOW, April 22 (UPI) -- Russia's state arms exporter said its business would remain steady this year, but warned the recession could affect supply lines.

"Our situation is stable," said Alexander Brindikov, head of a group that advises arms exporter Rosoboronexport.

The exporter expects sales to reach $7 billion this year, equal to sales for 2008, RIA Novosti reported Wednesday.

Currently, the company's backlog of orders is valued at $27 billion

However, "today in the marketplace … defense enterprises with the lowest levels of cooperation suffer the most, and this could lead to defaults on contracts," Brindikov said.

Russia's chief arms purchasers remain China and India, although arms, including MiG fighters, helicopters, battle tanks and armored personnel carriers are sold to about 80 different countries.

To keep business rolling, Rosoboronexport recently said it would offer loans and debt write-offs to some customers. The company has also increased its emphasis on servicing, upgrading, repairing and even decommissioning military equipment, RIA Novosti said.

Two dead in south Russia car blast

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090423/121255720.html

ROSTOV-ON-DON, April 23 (RIA Novosti) - Two people have died after a car blew up near the southern Russian city of Nalchik, emergency services said on Thursday.

According to the statement, a VAZ-2106 car exploded at approximately 10:00 pm on Wednesday [18:00 GMT] in a village a short distance from the capital of the North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria.

Two dead bodies were discovered in the vehicle after the subsequent blaze had been extinguished.

The cause of the blast and the identities of the two victims have yet to be determined.

22 April 2009, 14:42

Over a dozen Wahabi groups "neutralized" in North Caucasus - Russian ministry

http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=5959

Moscow, April 22, Interfax - The Russian authorities dismantled the activities of more than a dozen radical Wahabi groups at the end of 2008 and at the beginning of 2009, said Yury Kokov, head of the Interior Ministry's department for the fight against extremism.

"A large amount of work was carried out in the North Caucasus region, where we dismantled the operations of more than a dozen militant units involving supporters of radical Wahhabism, which has nothing in common with the fundamentals of traditional Islam, at the end of last year and this year," Kokov told the Public Chamber's forum for civil accord and against intolerance and extremism.

Several militant group leaders and emissaries of international extremist and terrorist organizations have been "neutralized", he said.

Prosecution to present evidence in new case against Khodorkovsky

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=13866285&PageNum=0

MOSCOW, April 23 (Itar-Tass) - Moscow’s Khamovniki (Khamovnichesky) court will hold a meeting on Thursday at which the prosecution side will begin to present evidence within a new case against former CEO of the YUKOS oil company Mikhail Khodorkovsky and former MENATEP head Platon Lebedev.

The prosecutors said in court that they would start with studying written documents and then would proceed to the questioning of witnesses. Some witnesses will be questioned as the need arises in the course of the documents’ studying.

Lebedev’s lawyer Yelena Liptser said earlier that on Thursday the defence side plans to challenge the public prosecutors.

On Tuesday, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev did not plead guilty in the Khamovniki court of Moscow on. “I do not plead guilty,” Khodorkovsky said in reply to questions put by the judge on each charge brought against him.

According to Khodorkovsky, the alleged embezzlement of Tomskneft stock was a temporary exchange for the protection against hostile takeovers, and no damage was done. “Criminal motives that I had, according to the opinion of the prosecutor, are disproved by my professional activities,” he said. On charges of YUKOS oil stealing “the fact of crime has not been proved,” Khodorkovsky said.

Lebedev also did not plead guilty on this charge. “I have never stolen anything, have not misappropriated anything by myself or in an organized group,” he said. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are accused of gross property stealing with office abuse. The cumulative sentence envisages 22 years in prison.

On Monday, the defendants filed a number of petitions at Moscow’s Khamovniki court, asking the prosecutors to clarify terms and facts in the indictment against them, as well as the method, time an place of the crimes they are accused of. “If a claim in the indictment contradicts another, or qualification of crime, I want explanations,” Khodorkovsky said. “I’ll have to defend not from suppositions, but from a written indictment, which I believe is vague and controversial,” he added.

Khodorkovsky asked for the clarification of 70 terms, whose meaning, in his opinion, is unclear in the indictment: for example, “hydrocarbon raw-materials,” “artificial transfer to balance,” “subordination of legal agents or natural persons,” and “daughter companies.” “It’s unclear in what sense the key term – “oil” - is used. I’m a specialist and understand that there’re different kinds of oil,” he said.

Former MENATEP director Platon Lebedev, a second defendant in the case, also said he did not understand any of the charges against him. He claimed practically each page of the indictment is vague this way or another.

The court turned down all the appeals.

Khodorkovsky’s lawyer Natalia Terekhova earlier said, “The indictment is vague on who and when detected the shortfall in oil, and who carried out the check. We wish to hear how the oil was misappropriated.”

Former YUKOS CEO Khodorkovsky and former MENATEP director Lebedev are accused of grand theft using their office powers. Investigators ascertained that the defendants, acting in an organized group involving the main shareholders of the YUKOS OJSC and other persons committed a theft by embezzling shares of subsidiaries of the Eastern Oil Company OJSC from November 6 to June 12, 1998 in the amount of 3.6 billion roubles, legalized the stolen shares of the subsidiaries of the Eastern Oil Company OJSC in 1998-2000 in the same amount, committed a theft by misappropriating oil belonging to YUKOS OJSC’s subsidiaries in 1998-2003 and oil belonging to Samaraneftegaz, Yuganskneftegaz and Tomskneft of the Eastern Oil Company OJSC in the amount of more than 892.4 billion roubles.

They are also suspected of legalized some of this money in 1998-2004 in the amount of 487.4 billion roubles and 7.5 billion US dollars. The criminal case totals 168 volumes.

In May 2005, Moscow’s Meshchansky district court found Khodorkovsky and Lebedev guilty under several articles of the Russian Criminal Code, including fraud and tax evasion and sentenced them to nine years in prison. Later, the Moscow City Court commuted the term to eight years.